The 2018 Breezy Awards
by Manuel Reynoso
Award season is in the air and it’s my honor to present to you, the only movie awards that truly matter: The 2017 Breezy Awards! The format is simple, I have a variety of Breezy awards to give out, plus an honorable mention for some of the categories, followed by an explanation for the awards. With that, here are my picks for the 2017 Breezy awards.
Best Cinematography: Roger Deacon, Blade Runner 2049
All around fantastic framing and camera work, Blade Runner 2049 has some of the best camera work I’ve seen. It gave the already visually striking film much more impact.
Best Film Editing, Lee Smith, Dunkirk
While editing may not be my forte, it’s easy to recognize excellence when I see it. With a narrative presented as complex as this, Lee Smith’s mastery of editing made the complexity of Dunkirk work so elegantly.
Best Animated Film: Coco
Coco’s importance to me can’t be overstated. It was a beautiful work of art while also being a celebration of the Mexican people and their culture. I was engrossed by the sights and sounds of my people finally have strong representation on the big screen. Call it biased, but Coco was a fantastic animated adventure, that makes me tear up every time.
Honorable Mention: The Breadwinner
A gripping and emotional tale of a Young Afghan girl assuming the identity of a boy to provide for her family, it’s a film that might have flown under most people’s radar but deserves to be seen regardless.
Best Screenplay: Lady Bird by Greta Gerwig
The brilliance of Lady Bird’s writing wasn’t revolutionary in the way the story was written. Instead, I found it’s brilliance in the way its characters are written and presented. It was a simple story that found its complexity in the relationships between the characters. For me personally, that’s why I find it deserving of Best Screenplay.
Honorable Mention: Get Out by Jordan Peele
I do believe Get Out is equally as deserving of this reward as Lady Bird. Get Out of ingenious in the way it presented social inequality and was very clever with its use of double entendre. It presents a difficult topic in a way both easily consumable and subverts many of our expectations of horror.
Best Director: Guillermo del Toro, Shape of Water
Guillermo del Toro continues to completely floor me in how much style and substance can be added to a film by having a strong direction. The art direction, cinematography, acting, and so on work together so beautifully under his direction.
Honorable Mention: Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
For me, Christopher Nolan is the master of big-budget movie making and Dunkirk was just another success in a long line of them. It’s a fantastic film, and no one makes them have impact quite like Nolan.
Many of the films listed above deserve an honorable mention for picture of the year, but only one can win the coveted 2017 Breezy Award for Best Picture.
Best Picture of the Year: Baby Driver
While it may seem unexpected, Baby Driver was the single most enjoyable film I’ve seen in 2017. Strong theming is the easiest way to my heart, and Baby Driver going all in on the theme of rhythm and music was beautiful. It was edited on beat, the dialog flowed like music, and the film marched along at the beat of its own drum. A surprising, but easy pick for Picture of the Year.
